Life on the Fast Lane, after 75

Last year, I turned 75 and joined the “elderly" demographic. I thought the next turning point would be when I turned 80. But here I am, just a few weeks after celebrating my 76^th birthday. My life has more changes: a focus on health, no travel, being homebound, family visits, and new writing directions.

More Attention on Health

When I turned 65, I celebrated being a “sexygenarian" (being sexy in the 60s), in the middle of all our exciting travels. At 70, I began to feel older as digestive problems flared up. We changed to slower travel.    

But now, health problems have become more challenging. Bill’s health issues have grown from cardiovascular to neurological. My hypothyroidism has been cured, but GERD still haunts me. Worse, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels have risen.

After the Blue Zones captured the world's imagination in Netflix’s “Live to 100” documentary, I became a student of longevity. Because we are more plant-based, I have dropped 12 pounds, and Bill, six. We also try to move and walk a lot. Hopefully, we are on the road to better health.  

Practically No Travel

After we returned from winter in Mexico, a San Diego celebration, a visit to Colorado in April, and a trip to Honolulu for the wedding of Bill’s first grandson in May, we have not traveled again. In August, we canceled our 16th-anniversary trip to Leavenworth, Washington.

Bill did not join me on a 10-day trip to Manila to receive an award and a two-day visit to my first great-grandbaby in Santa Monica. Regrettably, our traveling days are over. We will no longer be the wanderers we once were.

Being Homebound

We sold our car last December before we left for Cancun. We now travel around the valley on Uber rides, primarily for doctor visits. Everything is delivered via Prime, by the grocery, and the pharmacy.

Our resort life has become busy. Every Thursday, I play Scrabble at a neighbor’s home, host a poker session at home on one Tuesday a month, and have Filipino friends come to the house for mahjong one Sunday a month.

There are Photography Club and Painting Group meetings, line dancing classes, and Karaoke sessions. Finding new, healthy, and flavorful recipes is a constant delight. Now that my dwarf Meyer has given me 110 lemons this year, new plants will be added to my garden in the spring.

Outreach projects have become easier to follow through on. Last month, our Fil-Am Gala project successfully raised funds for deserving UP students after meeting via Zoom throughout the year.

A new cause has also engaged my attention. I have become a participant in an NIH-funded study managed by the Mayo Clinic and Banner Alzheimer's Institute. It’s for the early diagnosis and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.  

More Family Visits

My son-in-law visited in May to help with the house improvements we needed, and my eldest daughter came down from San Francisco last month to help with my birthday parties and Christmas decor.

My two daughters' families in North America will come to celebrate with us in a couple of weeks, from Christmas Day to New Year's Day. I am renting another house to accommodate everyone.

Come and visit us. It has become the norm. Even if hosting is a bit stressful, I love doing it! I will cherish every visit.

New Writing Directions

With all these changes, I hardly write about travel anymore. Recently, my posts have been about leadership and management, inspired by the award I received last August. Health and longevity, retirement and renewal, and occasional reminiscences of our travels are other favorite topics.

My travel blog can no longer host these writings. My next post will discuss my plans for a new platform. In the meantime, new book projects have emerged. My MediterrAsian Kitchen: Cooking for Both Taste and Health is in the works and the idea for a fourth book about caregiving has taken shape.

Life can be in the fast lane, even after 75, even without travel. There are so many unrealized ideas. It feels like we are running out of time.

 

3 WAYS YOU CAN KEEP FIT EVEN WHILE YOU’RE ON THE GO

dancing in Sedona

Health issues became a nagging problem when my husband and I RVed full-time.  Cardiovascular problems plagued Bill while gastrointestinal and other stress-related conditions hounded me.  Mesmerized by America’s beauty, we were always on the go, forgetting to keep fit. We should have paid more attention to it in three areas: exercise, food intake, and healthcare.

 Regular Exercise

Before our RV cruising days, we went to the gym regularly. However, campground fitness facilities proved inconsistent when we started our cross-continent runs. We thought hiking would be our main regimen, but many times hordes of mosquitoes feasted on us! And it was either too cold or too hot. And, even if sightseeing meant plenty of walking, it was only strolling.

 Over time, we learned that we just had to do at least two of the following or suffer the consequences. When Fitbits became popular, we aimed to do at least 6,000 steps a day.

 1.      Play a sport for at least 30 minutes five times a week. Choose from available facilities: table tennis, billiards, mini-golf, golf, tennis, and pickleball. Or dance!

 3.       Exercise for at least 30 minutes, five times a week, gym or no gym. YouTube offers many exercise videos. We like Jennifer McClendon.

 2.       Walk for 30 minutes at least five times a week after dinner.

 Healthy Food Intake

 During our early cruising days in our smaller RV, we would cut up a lot of veggies and fruits and have nuts available for snacking on, with lots of water to wash them down, while we moved from place to place. When we settled at campgrounds longer, nesting in a bigger RV, we began to cook more meals. Loving to try local cuisine, we succumbed to heartier eating.

 When the Blue Zones became well-known, we went into a modified Longevity Diet: more vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and fruits, regularly adding fish and seafood, and occasionally, chicken, pork, or beef. We had to make the following rules:

 1.       Eat one big meal a day, preferably lunch, and two other small ones or just two regular meals, late breakfast and early dinner.

 2.       Graze throughout the day with light morning, afternoon, and evening snacks, such as nuts, fruits, or vegetables.

 3.       Eat out infrequently, preferably only during an occasion for celebration, and compensate with smaller meals the rest of the day when we do.

 In addition, we discovered two novel ways of skipping a meal at least once a week. One is to have a popcorn lunch while watching a movie in the theater. The other is to lunch with free Costco food samples when we shop for supplies.

 When we started to travel the world after our RVing phase, we stayed in our timeshare units. They always have kitchens, enabling shopping at local groceries, where there are many goodies we don’t find in stores back home, and cooking new and exciting local fare.

 Beginning in 2019, we converted our El Cid timeshares in Mexico to be all-inclusive. Instead of encouraging us to eat more, we became smart and upped our resolve with buffets' abundant seafood, vegetable, and fruit choices.   

 Preventive Healthcare

 At the beginning of our full-time RVing, we forgot about preventive healthcare. Later we became snowbirds and settled our RV in Phoenix every winter. It was the smartest decision we ever made. There is excellent care for seniors because of the high population of retired and visiting seniors. Arizona ranks #15 among the 50 states in terms of elderly care. It is one of the reasons we chose to settle here permanently. We found an excellent family doctor who keeps track of regular screens and refers us to the best specialists needed.

 We travel less now but the habits we formed have stayed with us. With regular exercise, healthy food intake, and consistent preventive healthcare, we look forward to some travel, even past our 70s and 80s.                                                                                                          

PINNABLE IMAGE

                                                                                                                                       

FALLING ILL WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

I was sick so I could only admire the Icelandic fishing town Isofjordur from the deck

The most unfortunate thing is to get sick when you are traveling. In our sixteen years of travels, I remember three occasions when that happened to my husband and me.

 A Two-Week Cruise that Was Disrupted

 The first was during the Enrichment Voyage cruise, the two weeks when adults are allowed to join Semester at Sea, the program that enables college students to earn credits on board a cruise ship to get global experiences required for their degrees. Whenever we were at sea, the college professors held courses on politics, economics, and geography of the next country we were to visit.

 Before embarking in Sweden, we had just finished a tour of Norway, Finland, and Russia. After a port call in Copenhagen, the cruise ship proceeded to Reykjavik, Iceland. En route to the small fishing town of Isofjodur in western Iceland, we developed chills, fever, colds, and cough. By then, the small clinic on the ship had become as busy as the buffet stations. Some virus was going around. My husband braved a walking tour of the town but, feeling worse, I stayed on the ship, taking photos from the deck. It was good I was well enough to join the excursion at Akureyri in northern Iceland.  

 A Disney Vacation that Didn't Happen

 On the first week of December 2011, we parked our RV in Orlando, Florida, seven miles from Disney World. Finally, at 63, I was going to the theme park for the first time! The next morning, right after breakfast, Bill felt severe chest pains. We hurried to the Urgent Care Center right outside the Resort. They quickly told us to go to the Heart of Florida Hospital, about fifteen minutes away. The surgeon immediately performed an angioplasty, inserting three stents into two of Bill’s arteries, one 100% blocked, the other, 75%.

 Would you believe I had to endure a TV show about preparing for a funeral while in the waiting room? Later, I had to go back and forth between the hospital and the campground when I hardly knew how to drive. I did not know anyone at the Park. Without a support system, within a week, hives broke out all over my body. My dream Disney World vacation turned into a horror story.

 The Consequences of Long Drives

 In 2013 we made a long road trip to visit our children in Idaho, Alberta, Washington, and Colorado. To be more comfortable we opted to take the car and left the RV in storage in Mesa, Arizona. The first stop was Boise, then Calgary. From there to Seattle, my husband drove twelve hours straight. Not even two days later, we left for a nineteen-hour drive to Denver.

 That’s where a painful knot behind my husband’s left knee progressed to his whole left leg, from the hip to his foot, feeling numbness, tightness, and pain. At the nearest hospital, they found several blood clots on that leg. He was given injections to break them down and tablets to thin out his blood. It took a week before the doctors allowed him to drive back home. Again, I had a flare-up of hives. They must be caused by stress. After this incident, we set six hours as our maximum driving time in a day, with a good stop after the first three hours.

 Falling ill during travel is inconvenient at best; it can be tragic at worst. We were lucky that both cardiovascular problems happened in American urban centers. Just imagine how terrifying and costly it would have been if we had been elsewhere where Medicare was not available, the healthcare system was not good enough, and we didn’t know anybody who could help us.

With health issues becoming more serious as we age, there are several things we must do if we want to continue traveling. Our travels should be safe, convenient, and comfortable. We must also keep our insurance up-to-date and comprehensive. But the most important thing is to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, ready to face the rigors of life on the road.

 

 

 

How to Stay Young as Long as Possible: The Longevity Diet Part 2

Last week we hopefully established the scientific case for adopting the Longevity Diet by referencing the “Live to be 100” Netflix documentary and the books, Nine Hallmarks of Aging and The Longevity Diet. This part discusses its ten principles (divided into three sections, what, how much, and when to eat) and how we implemented them.

What to Eat

We know the first two principles well:                                                              1. maximize vitamins and minerals (or eat lots of fruits and vegetables) and 2.  minimize salt, sugar, and bad fats (or stay away from processed foods).

However, I was surprised by the third principle: 

3. minimize proteins before the age of 65 (white meat, but especially). 

This is based on a large study of 50–65-year-olds that shows moderate and high-protein diets are directly linked to significantly higher mortality rates, especially from cancer.

As far as carbohydrates and fats are concerned, it is recommended that we   4.  eat complex carbs (not flour/sugar but whole grains/beans/legumes) and 5. use olive oil generously. 

Finally, it is recommended that we                                                                      6. introduce variety to what we eat, especially those foods from our ancestry.   Longo says that the diet that comes closest to it is the Mediterranean plus the pescatarian diet.

How Much to Eat

Another large study showed that the high-calorie American diet vs. the medium-calorie Japanese diet vs. the low-calorie Okinawan (Japanese Blue Zone) diet showed a direct relationship between high-calorie consumption to diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. 

Therefore, we must 

7. restrict calories to just what we need. 

Multiply your weight by 15 and subtract 500 to maintain weight, and 1000 to lose weight. Recalculate as you lose weight, ensuring a slow but steady weight loss vs. the drastic results of other flash diets.

We can help ourselves do this. We must                                                               8. regulate the number of times we eat.                                                     Eat It Three meals and one snack of 100 calories daily are recommended for those over 65 or two meals and one snack for those below 65. 

Finally, we should                                                                                             9. practice the Blue Zone rule to stop eating when you are 80% full.           Drinking water before meals also helps.

When to Eat

There are many benefits to fasting. The reason people fast is usually for religious or weight loss purposes. But the best reason for fasting is to reboot our cells and allow for repair and recycle times. 

Therefore, 

10) fasting is highly recommended. 

Every day, we should follow an eating window (8-12 hours) and a fasting window (16-12 hours), more popularly known as intermittent fasting. 

In addition, twice a year a longer fast of three to five days is recommended. To help with longer fasts, we can supplement with a fast-mimicking diet (FMD) of very very low protein, very very low sugar, very high good fats).

How We Implemented the Principles at Home

This is how we have implemented these ten principles at home. First, I have stopped or minimized the following (except on my rare cheat days):

1.    Drinks: soda, coffee, alcohol, milk, and sweetened drinks

2.    Sweets: candy, cake, chocolate (except dark), ice cream

3.    Carbs: white rice, white pasta, white bread, potato

4.    Proteins: red meat

The only oil I use is olive oil, and I even deep-fry with it occasionally. I modify recipes that I love, reducing meats by half and doubling vegetables. Often humming “Bahay Kubo,” a favorite Filipino song celebrating rural life and Philippine vegetables, I have brought back to our table a lot of Philippine dishes I love and which Bill has grown to love.

For my special needs to control my blood glucose and acidity levels, I researched both the glycemic load and PH level of my favorite foods and listed down those that satisfy my requirement of low GI (low carbohydrate and sugar load) and high PH (alkaline).  With the resulting list of proteins, carbs, fruits, and vegetables that I can have, I made another list of dishes that I can prepare. I came up with 28 different dishes from Philippine cuisine, American cuisine (Bill’s favorites), and international cuisine (our mutual favorites) for lunch and dinner. That means we don’t have to repeat a dish in a month, meeting the requirement of variety and preference for ancestral foods. We did the same thing for breakfast and snack items.

Lastly, we eat breakfast at around 7:30 am, lunch at around 11:30 am, snack at around 2:30 pm, and dinner at around 5:30 pm. We don’t eat anything else after 5:30 pm, giving us a fasting window of 14 hours and an eating window of ten.

I lost three pounds in August 2023 the first month I implemented the principles, two in September, and a pound a month since, for a total of ten pounds. My daily calorie requirement has been reduced to 1,240 calories. My a1c dropped from 6.6 in May to 6.4 in November. Since this is still at a prediabetic level, I will continue this plan and hope that it is even lower in time for my May bloodwork.

 

How to Stay Young As Long As Possible: The Longevity Diet Part 1

There are currently several billionaires bent on reversing their age. But we ordinary folks don’t have to have big money to do it. This first part will try to establish the case for adopting the longevity diet so that we can approximae our body’s potential of 120 years. Part 2 will describe its ten principles and how we implemented them at home.

It isn’t a diet per se. It’s a paradigm of nourishment so that we can stay young as long as possible. In other words, we should not only seek to increase our life span but also our health span. Studies have shown that, on average, in the last nine or so years of our lives we get an increasing host of health issues. We shouldn’t suffer in those years.

Why am I so into this? I retired at 55 when I was diagnosed with GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). At 60 came mild hypertension and at 65 came mild hypothyroidism. Last year, when I was about to turn 75, my a1c registered 6.6. Whoa, I had crossed the diabetes Rubicon of 6.5! I had to do something.

Theories of Aging
Dan Buettner’s “Live to 100,” the hit Netflix documentary, has shown us what people do in Blue Zones, where centenarians make up a big percent of the population. It urges us to follow four principles:

1   Living with purpose.

2.    Connecting with others.

3.    Moving naturally.

4.    Eating a modified plant-based diet.

So I wanted to understand the aging process. The book Harnessing the Nine Hallmarks of Aging by Greg Macpherson helped me do that. A discussion of the nine hallmarks may be too densely scientific but let me share what I took away from the book. There are two views of aging. The first is that aging is built into our DNA: evolutionary or programmed aging. The evolutionary view says that our bodies are built to procreate and when we are done with our basic function, we die to give way to the next generation.

Programmed aging refers to the fact that certain things in our bodies are limited in quantity. Telomeres, which protect the ends of our chromosomes become shorter and shorter, as cells divide. They become senescent when they reach the Hay Flick Limit of 40-60. In addition, stem cells are already drastically reduced by the time we are toddlers. They are just meant to bolster our growth as babies.

There is also the theory that aging occurs due to damage to our cells, as in the case of misfolded proteins and mitochondrial decline. Proteins are our body’s building blocks. There are 20,000 types in the body, and each type is built from 20 different amino acids. There can be many random errors in this highly complex process.

The mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, producing energy for cell health and survival. However, as they do this, they also produce free radicals that damage cells. As we age, the rate at which they produce free radicals increases. We must remember that these free radicals are also introduced to our bodies by chemicals in the environment.

With these complex processes, damaged and dead cells accumulate in our bodies; even DNA can be damaged. And when there are enough cells damaged, the immune system is weakened which can lead to more damage. The processes meant for the repair (cell repair pathways) and recycling (autophagy) of such cells must be supported.

Why Diet Matters

Healthy fats and proteins bolster our cellular walls and membranes. Vitamins and minerals help protect our cells from, and repair, damage. Carbohydrates give us energy. The food we eat matters in nurturing, protecting, and repairing cells. And how and when we eat also influences how our damaged and dead cells are repaired and/or recycled.

The Longevity Diet

It was the book Harnessing the Nine Hallmarks of Aging that led me to the ground-breaking book, The Longevity Diet by Dr. Volter Longo, Director of the Longevity Institute of the University of Southern California. He studied the centenarians of his roots in Italy and together with the five pillars of juventology (youth and longevity) research, epidemiological, clinical, centenarian, and complex systems studies, he developed the ten principles of the Longevity Diet.

Next Week: The Longevity Diet Part 2 

5 Things My Husband and I Practice in Retirement to Keep Us Young

 

This article was first published in Travel Awaits. I have updated it here.

A 2017 article from AARP says that people over 65 think that “old” means being closer to 74. Well, my husband is turning 80 in two months, and I turned 75 two months ago! Luckily, people tell us we look young! I am Asian so that may be a reason, but my husband is Caucasian. The secret must be something we are doing together. Here are some possible explanations.

1. Keeping An 8-Hour Day

After we married, he sold his business, I retired from teaching at the university, and we went on an 8-year honeymoon running around North America in an RV. In other words, we postponed “settling down.”

Every day became an adventure. For me, it consisted of an hour at the fitness center (we always selected campgrounds with one), an hour of cooking, 4 to 6 hours of visiting one or two landmarks in the area, and an hour of journaling about them. He took care of maintaining the RV and made time for sports.

When we finally settled down, we chose ViewPoint Golf Resort, a 55+ active community. My day changed to 2 hours of social media and writing, an hour at the fitness center (including hot tub and sauna), an hour of cooking, 2 hours at clubs (computer, photography, karaoke, writing/editing, dancing, and poker clubs), an hour at the library, and an hour of arts. He continued in sports and joined me at the gym and library.

In both phases, weekends were devoted to preparing for the coming week, planning meals, shopping for groceries, doing other errands, and going to church. It was a smooth transition from working to “retiring.” Our weekdays remained as full 8-hour days, and our weekends stayed the same. The only difference is that we do what we want to do, not things we have to do. So if we even get stressed, it's the good kind...the one that comes with great satisfaction.

2. Creating More Special Days

To disrupt this routine, we created special days. And they didn’t have to be on the weekends. Weekdays are usually better because there are no crowds at movies, malls, or travel destinations. There are movies we must see in theaters, not just for theater popcorn but for the grand experience, especially during Oscar season. Classics at the Hale Theater have become part of our to-dos. To give my husband a break from my “excellent” cooking, we carefully research and pick exceptional places for both ambiance and cuisine to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, Easter, Mother/Father’s Days, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.

And travel days are always special days. They sneak in throughout the year. Day trips to parks are rites of renewal, especially during blooming spring days. Summer sees us road-tripping to the homes of our children and grandchildren. Fall is the time for attending conferences or visiting new places to write about. And then we spend 3 months of winter in Mexico when Phoenix gets "too cold."

3. Living with Lots of Fun and Laughter

Socializing is a key part of corporate life, and it does not have to stop in retirement. At ViewPoint, we not only join clubs, but we also love hosting dinners, get-togethers, and parties. We added a large sunroom so we can have a better entertainment area.

During COVID, I switched to the Pro version of Zoom so I could host more and longer sessions. Now that we can again meet in person, my mahjong sessions with friends have resumed. So have the Friday dinners at home. And on our birthdays and Christmas/New Year, we host bigger parties. These socials are venues for a lot of fun and laughter.

And there are other ways to feel giddy and laugh. Although the urban myth that children laugh more than adults has been debunked, I still love being around children. It’s an absolute thrill to be with our grandkids. We seek younger (than us) souls to experience diverse interests and senses of humor. Finally, we have turned more and more to comedies.

4. Taking Care Of Health

I cannot emphasize this enough. In the first place, poor health will do the opposite of what we want: cut short our retirement days and make us look older than our biological age. There are several parts to this: exercise, nutrition, sleep, hydration, and grooming.

ViewPoint has three fitness centers, one of which is just six houses away from us. At times my husband succeeds in making me walk or hike with him. At other times, I succeed in making him walk the mall with me (with some shopping benefits).

But what we put inside our tummies makes the most difference. Since I am in control of the kitchen, my husband has gone with my flow. Our nutrition plan is based on three principles: portion management (don’t cook huge batches), diversity (don’t repeat anything in a month), and availability (don’t have in the house what you should not consume). And I have since joined the Longevity movement (more on this in a later article).

And then, of course, there is sleep and hydration. My Fitbit tells me my sleep score when I wake up, and I deliberately slow my day on a low score. I also try to drink a lot of water and cap my day with a large cup of chamomile tea with honey and vanilla.

We can also enhance our look by good grooming well. Wear colors that suit your complexion, cuts that complement your body, hairstyles that go well with your face, accessories that finish a look, and make-up that highlights or hides.

5. Living With a Purpose

But it’s something much deeper than the physical that will truly make the difference. Mental and spiritual health is sustained by living a life of purpose. I have found that helping others and not getting paid for it is far more fulfilling than just being useful. There are so many who need help, who cannot provide for themselves, or who need just a little push to make their lives better.

My first volunteer activity was at the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) to help small businesses that were just starting and did not yet have the means to pay for advice. The right tips can put them over the hump. My husband volunteered as a CASA, a court-appointed special advocate, who tries to save children from the grip of highly dysfunctional families and the trap of easy money, crime, and incarceration. Some focused attention is all they need.

My desire to meet Filipinos in America led me to fellow alumni of the University of the Philippines. We founded the UP Alumni Association in Arizona, and today we are supporting at least two scholars in the Philippines to graduate and help the country. The UP Alumni Association in America to which we are affiliated supports even more students.

In other words, looking and feeling young comes from a full life borne out of an openness to diverse experiences. Have full days, create special days, and fill them with fun and laughter. And don’t forget to take care of your health and live a life of purpose.

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We RVed Full-Time for 8 Years: Here are 10 Lessons We Learned

From High to Low Risk, Cruising while on Quarantine

During summer, we usually go on a long cruising trip on the road to escape the Phoenix heat, visit our children, and celebrate our anniversary. But, since there is a ban on non-essential travel between the US and Canada and my middle daughter lives in Calgary, we won’t be able to go there. Even Ada County in Idaho—including Boise where Bill’s son lives—is imposing a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for people from states with high community spread of Covid-19 like Arizona. So we will not be able to go there either.

Instead, we are doing two shorter road trips to visit family and celebrate in areas where there are, in fact, lower risks for Covid-19 than staying at home. We will soon be in Granby, Colorado to visit Bill’s eldest daughter. Then in August, we visit my eldest daughter in Livermore, California. Before Colorado, Bill and I have chosen to spend a week in The Cliff Lodge Summer and Ski Resort in Snowbird, Utah. Before Livermore, we are spending another week in Snow Lake Lodge in Big Bear Lake, California. Both are part of celebrating our 12^th year wedding anniversary. This post is about the Utah celebration. 

Shoshone Falls

Bill drove all of 11 hours from Viewpoint to The Cliff Lodge, plus two 30-minute rest stops. After a much-needed rest for the night, Bill again drove the following day to Twin Falls, Idaho—four hours each way. It was our only chance to have a picnic with his eldest son and his family since that part of Idaho is not restricted. They chose a spectacular location for a picnic: the Shoshone Falls, "The Niagara of the West." Standing 212 feet tall and 900 feet wide, it is one of the largest natural waterfalls in the US, higher than, but not as wide as, Niagara. I really don’t know why its application as a national park was rejected. It should be one.

Located on the Snake River, it carves its way through a deep basalt canyon to meet the Columbia River below. Its flow is dependent on many variables. The best time to see it is in spring when the snow begins to melt in the mountains. In the summer months, a part of the river is diverted for use in irrigating 500,000 acres of farmland so the flow is somewhat reduced. But I thought it was still pretty spectacular, even in July. The worst time to visit is during fall when the water is used to recharge the reservoir system upstream. 

The Cliff Lodge at Snowbird

After another night of rest, we woke up to the beauty of our 1,500 square feet one-bedroom suite of the Cliff Club, an up-scale timeshare property located within the Ski & Summer Resort in Sandy, Utah nestled in the lovely little Cottonwood Canyon. The bedroom had an oh-so-comfy king bed, a lounge area with a sofa bed, an office desk, and a bar set-up, a bathroom suite with a walk-in closet/washing machine area, and a balcony. The living area had a sofa bed and armchair, a bar with stools, a complete kitchen, another office desk area, a bathroom suite, and another balcony equipped with a jacuzzi kept at 104 degrees Fahrenheit 24x7. We certainly  founda lot of use for it.  

The two balconies both looked out to the green wonderland of the Wasatch Mountains. It offers great ski slopes during the winter but in spring and summer, there are wonderful displays of wildflowers amid lots of firs, pines, and aspens. We could even see parts of the little Snowbird Village like the aerial tram, the chairlifts, the mountain coaster, and the stream that made the constant hum of nature calling. The Snowbird Center on the Village features other lodging facilities, shopping outlets, and more activity areas like the huge trampoline, the alpine slide, summer tubing, the vertical drop, a tree climb, and gemstone mining. In the whole resort, there are a total of nine shopping outlets, five fine dining and eleven casual dining restaurants, a high-end Spa at the top of The Cliff Lodge, another swimming pool and hot tubs at ground level and get this: 11 lower mountain, ten mid/upper mountain, and six Mineral Basin Trails for hiking and biking. 

We bought the Bird Bundle pass that is good for three hours and did everything that we could finish during that time. We tried both the Peruvian Lift and the Aerial Tram to get photos of all the spectacular views from up there at 11,000 feet above sea level. We took the Chickadee chairlift up to ride down the winding Alpine Slide twice and rode the rollicking mountain coaster twice. And my vocal cords exploded to Bill's utter embarrassment. They were our favorites so we did not get to experience the others.

The Resort, which opened only on July 1, required masks at all indoor and outdoor gathering areas. There were hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere. Everything we touched was sanitized after use. Contact tracing logs had to be filled up wherever we went  Reservations, menus, and forms were all digital.  Employees were health-checked every day. The resort was only operating at 40% capacity. Each facility was restricted by capacity, too. Most restaurants had patio seating sections. There was hardly a soul inside the Lodge. There was no need for air-conditioning so there were no common airflows. We just opened the sliding doors during the day.  The only bad experience was the initial adjustment to the altitude and the dry air. Two humidifiers were available for our suite. 

The Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island

We must have passed Salt Lake City several times but I had never visited The Great Salt Lake. So we went down to visit the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. Its size fluctuates a lot because the lake is shallow. It has recorded the lowest at 950 and the largest at 3,300 square miles. Three major tributaries deposit approximately 1.1 million tons of minerals in it each year. Because there is no outlet for the water besides evaporation, the lake water is far saltier than seawater. In fact, it is the eighth saltiest body of water in the world, just behind the Dead Sea, at 30% salinity. Thus, you naturally float.  

Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles, is the largest of ten islands in the Great Salt Lake. When the lake is at its low levels, it actually becomes a peninsula. We drove across the causeway, a narrow two-lane road connecting the mainland to the island. It was a great place to see the beauty of the Great Salt Lake and witness the variety of scenes from white salt beaches, to white salt lakes, to everything in between. It is also home to the wildlife which grows well since there are no predators on the island: pronghorn, bighorn sheep, American bison, porcupine, badger, coyote, bobcat, mule deer, and millions of waterfowl.

After covering the areas around the Visitor Center, the Park Headquarters, and the two campgrounds, and having some burgers and onion rings at the Island Grille on the northwestern section of the island, I was lamenting not being able to spot any wildlife. But, as we were driving to the southeast side, we chanced upon a herd of maybe fifty bison down by the lakeside on Bill’s side of the car. When Bill stopped to let me out and take photos, lo and behold, there were ten of them on the hillside beside me.  I had heyday taking their photos especially when they rushed down the hill, crossed the road, and joined the herd.

We did not forget to visit the Fielding Garr Ranch located on the southernmost part of the road. The house is known for being the oldest continually inhabited Anglo home in the state of Utah (1848 to 1981) and the oldest Anglo built house in Utah still on its original foundation. It was quite interesting to see the old barn, stand-alone cottages, stockyard, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, grain silo, and farm implements. The stables had a few horses, too.

The Great Salt Lake State Park

The Great Salt Lake State Park is nearer the city but is quite small. It consists of the only easily accessible and swimmable part of the lake, the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club and Marina, and a Visitor Center. There are great views of the lake, Antelope Island, the Black Rock, and Saltair Resort. The latter is a modern-day remnant and symbol of the original Saltair built on pilings over the shore area of Great Salt Lake. The new resort offers concerts and a concession service for souvenirs. This was opened as a state park in 1928. And in 1980, the marina was enlarged with new boat docks.

The Utah State Capitol

The Club is just 25 miles from Historic Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The beautiful mountain resort thus gives its guests a lovely mountain escape with great access to city life and an international airport. We have passed through the city many times as we visited Bill’s children, to and from Idaho and Colorado. We had been to Temple Square before so we went to see the State Capitol  has been instead. It isois of the state’s most prominent landmarks since 1916 and underwent one of the largest historical preservation projects in the US in 2004-8. It renovated the building against the risk of an earthquake and restored the original beauty and artwork. However, it was closed to visitors. Outside is the wonderful monument to Salt Lake City's founder and Utah's first governor, Brigham Young.

We have been to many timeshare properties but this is one we would definitely go back to and maybe experience it during other seasons.  And Salt Lake City offers a lot for visitors. I wouldn’t mind photographing Antelope Island during sunset and maybe spend more time at the Temple Square.

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Creative Ideas for a Meaningful Self-Isolation

White Tank Mountain Regional Park

On January 21, it was reported that the coronavirus ravaging China had arrived in the US, in Seattle, Washington. We were on our annual three-month all-inclusive vacation at a resort in Mazatlan, Mexico. Later, I got more worried since the most vulnerable seemed to be older people, like Bill and me, especially those with compromised immune systems. This post is how we progressed from cutting short our trip, going home to self-isolation, and finding ways to cope with the situation.

Going Home

Los Arcos on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta

On March 11, when we were on our second of a two-week visit in Puerto Vallarta, the WHO officially declared COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, a pandemic. We did not want to cut short our stay so we did social distancing. We did not join tours, visited landmarks at non-peak times, went to outdoorsy places, and tried to keep the required healthy distance from the people we found in places.

When we got back to Mazatlan on March 14, Europe had become the new epicenter and panic-buying in the US had set in. We had twelve more scheduled days in Mexico but we decided to cut short our stay and canceled/rebooked our tours to La Noria, La Concordia, and San Carlos. Then we shopped for staples, including toilet paper, at Walmart and local grocery chain Soriana.  We were driving.

the Mariposa border, a ghost town

We left Mexico when the statistics were pretty grim, the US had become a new epicenter, and the Canadian and Mexican borders had been closed to non-essential travel. It took us two days, driving eight hours each day to get home. What was surprising was it took us no time at the Mariposa Border on both the Mexico and US sides. What was scary was that there was no inspection or testing done.  

But home is the best place to do self-isolation, not on a cruise ship out at sea or a hotel room in a foreign country. Now that we have completed our 14-day period of self-isolation, it has been decided for us that we have to extend it to the end of April. I wouldn’t say it is welcome news but it’s not a problem. There are a few things we have learned to do to make it a more meaningful one.

Having a Flagship Project

Whenever a phase in my life goes south, I always turn to some project to which I can focus my energy. The last time, my first travel book, Carolina: Cruising to an American, was born. This time it’s my second travel book. I started it last October but progress had stalled. Now my first draft is near completion and I hope to be on the editing phase by the end of the month. (No, the title will not be Cruising with Coronavirus). I call it a flagship project, one that consumes my passion. Find yours!

Creating Significant Engagement Time with Others

My three daughters and their husbands are all in “work from home” modes in San Francisco, Calgary, and Melbourne. With the help of Zoom, I have been able to conduct one-hour class sessions with my grandsons, ages 4-6, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I am so happy that I can help and that I am engaged with my family. They may not be as far-flung as mine but your physical engagement is limited just the same. On Easter Sunday, we hope to celebrate via HouseParty. And we have scheduled a neighborhood party through the same app. As a matter of fact, an appeal of mine for one lemon posted on the Viewpoint Facebook Group netted 18 lemons, 13 oranges, and seven grapefruits,   Let technology bridge the gap!

on Zoom with my grandkids

Keeping the Kitchen Alive with Substitutes 

Delivery from groceries and pick-ups from pharmacies have kept us from needing to go into stores. But, particularly for groceries, the stocks available are not the same so sometimes we cannot cook with the same ingredients. Consider my Spam Fried Rice. We did not have eggs. Guess what is the substitute for them? Vegans have known all along that it is scrambled tofu. It’s a good thing I had a non-refrigerated version from a Mexican local grocery chain. Scrambled tofu looks and tastes just like scrambled eggs. Believe that there’s always a substitute! 

Cleaning with Everywhere Solutions 

The time calls for disinfectant cleanliness but the panic-buying has created out-of-stock items big time.  When we shopped in Mexico, hand sanitizers and 60+% Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol bottles were nowhere to be found. But Bill found ethyl alcohol 70% so we made hand sanitizers together with aloe vera with it. He even found wipes and gloves in a medical supplies store at a hospital in Mexico. As far as face masks are concerned, Holiday Inn, our hotel on the way back home, gave us enough. Solutions are everywhere!

a gift from Holiday Inn

We had our house cleaned before our arrival. As soon as we arrived, we left our shoes outside the door and used disinfectant sprays on all commonly used surfaces to further protect us. Now we also launder linens and towels more often.  We also disinfect groceries outside before taking them in. It is good we are fully supplied with toilet paper, paper towels, and tissue paper because the shelves in Mexico were full of them, as well as other cleaning supplies like Chlorox and Lysol.

at Walmart in Mazzatlan

Keeping Ourselves Renewed

My writing assignments have increased and I am still maintaining my blog while Bill reads e-books and listens to music a lot when he is not working on our financials. As far as recreation is concerned, there are many options for entertainment available for my favorite pastime of watching movies. So, we are friends with Netflix and TV every night. As a matter of fact, we have allowed ourselves the luxury of one Redbox on Demand once a week when we imagine we are in a theater with popcorn!

at the Estrella Mountain Regional Park

But the best idea is this. We have considered our car an extension of our home. We disinfect it, too. So we have created a list of places where we can go and breathe the good fresh air and see the desert in color. Spring is the best time to be here. It's the season when the palo verde trees turn blazing yellow, poppies grow wild, and the cacti bloom. If we don’t see people on the trails, we go down and walk a little. If not, we just continue driving. The operative principle is to distance ourselves from others, but not from nature.  We are grateful that Arizona has not closed its state parks.

We have canceled our trips in April but are still holding on to our bookings from July to September. Even if they all fall through, we will not be bothered. Self-isolation is a meaningful activity not only because it helps flatten the curve for our community and the world but because it gives us meaning for our own lives. Besides, it may be a significant inflection point for a new normal of how we live.

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